a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Game 66 – My Heart Can’t Go On

I guess the Jazz equipment guys didn’t bring any white shoes and socks on the road trip.

I knew something was wrong when I woke up from a one-hour nap feeling too well-rested. Indeed, my one-hour nap had turned into three, I had missed the pre-game show, and it was midway through the second. Dammit. My body clock is all out of whack thanks to the early starts of this East Coast swing.

Anyway, onto the game. First of all, I must give props to Jerry for throwing the reverse jinx on DWade. Jerry told reporters yesterday, “He’ll get 15, 18 free throws, I assume — somewhere in that neighborhood — playing against us.” It follows that DWade only shot 5 FTs in regulation and 9 FTs through 3OT.

The Jazz opened the third with a DWill jumper that gave them a 6-point lead. The Heat soon erased the deficit and got up by 7 before the Jazz closed to within 3 at the end of 3. (Here, I have to give more props for Jerry for getting it and sitting Boozer in the 4th.) AK opened the quarter by scoring on four shots from all over the floor and Sap added another five to put the Jazz up 3 with 7 minutes left.

6 Dwill points and a KK 3 later, the Jazz were ahead by 7. With 2:30 remaining, it looked like the Jazz would close out the win. Instead, AK inexplicably and implausibly gets called for four fouls on four different–what do you call them? Heaters? Heatmen? Hotties? Calories?–Heat players in those final two minutes and fouls out with three seconds left. Memo and KK also got called for a foul each in that span. Conversely, Miami got called for 0 fouls and managed to tie the game despite missing 4 threes. Absolutely the biggest meltdown of the season. Jerry puts Boozer back in, DWill misses, and…OT.

Memo and KK hit two huge threes to open the period while Miami misses two threes and turns the ball over. Following the timeout, KK hits another shot to put the Jazz up 8 with 2:46. Again, it looked like the Jazz would close out the win. Then Boozer gets rejected, Memo misses, KK gets called for an offensive foul, DWill turns it over, and Memo gets called for a shooting foul. The Heat tie it with 22 seconds left on FTs and the Jazz take possession. Showing the full extent of his protuberant skull–>boneheadedness, Boozer jacks up a 15-footer without bothering to run out the clock and misses. DWade gets the board with 6 whole seconds left and misses on a 3…2OT.

In 2OT, the Jazz and Heat exchange buckets and DWill hits a long two to tie it at 125-125 with 3 seconds left. DWade launches another 3 at the buzzer and misses again…3OT and what’s left of my heart can’t take it anymore.

The Heat outscored the Jazz 15-4 in 3OT. Simply put, the Jazz’s gas tank was on empty by this time (which fills me with the opposite of optimism about tomorrow against Orlando). On the Jazz side, 3OT went like this: